Approval of big mining projects in Queensland has revived office leasing activity as companies look for space in the oversupplied Brisbane central business district.

Last month, the UK’s BG Group won approval to build a $US15 billion gas project in the state and
WorleyParsons
won an engineering and procurement contract for part of the project.

WorleyParsons is looking for 8000 square metres of offices in Brisbane and it’s believed the listed company is looking at GPT’s Transit Centre.

Commercial and professional ­services company
Transfield Services
is looking for 1000 square metres of project space, and mining giant Xstrata is looking for 3500 square metres.

It is believed Parsons Brinckerhoff is expanding into 1000 square metres of space and mining services group
Coffey International
is looking for 3000 square metres. Hancock Coal has just leased another 500 square metres in its Queen Street premises.

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Origin Energy
and joint venture partner ConocoPhillips have won approval for a $35 billion project and will probably require more space.

CB Richard Ellis state director David Prosser said the resurgent mining activity would lift Brisbane out of what is the worst CBD leasing market in the country.

“Various resource-related companies already based in Brisbane are expanding, and this is being complemented by a surge of new businesses moving to Queensland to try and capture their slice of the resource pie," Mr Prosser said.

He said the flow-on would also feed through to law firms.

“While mining and engineering service providers are obvious beneficiaries of the investment in resources, the level of new business generated will be felt across a variety of sectors.

“All major legal and accountancy practices, for a start, will be very excited by the potential level of revenue the expected boom may generate, and staff numbers will no doubt rise rapidly as a result of this."

Tenant services firm MPS property, which is advising Xstrata, cautioned that mining related companies often want shorter leases that expire when the project is complete.